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My definition of Decadence is when someone feels the need to shell out 50 bucks for a 1-foot square plot of land in Scotland or who knows where so he/she can be declared a noble and bolster a sagging sense of self and purpose in life.

A society that considers a house an asset and a child a liability, deserves no more than what it will end up with.

"Once the moral code of society is based around popularity, there is no recourse to actions being ridiculous." If there was ever a better summation of the culture of Instagram and TikTok, I haven't seen one.

"Decadence comes when man turns away from the stars and instead drowns himself in wine." One of my favorite quotes from you.

"The willingness to put culturally constructed reality above reality itself." That's it, that sums it up

"People who buy NFTs dishonor their inherent value as human beings." Couldn't have said it better myself.

"It is the willingness to put culturally constructed reality above reality itself" How do you explain things so perfectly, that was fucking amazing

“We’ve seen Europe drop from 38-24% of the world’s economy while the US has remained a stable quarter.” Has gotta be this man’s catchphrase

“All empires fall, eventually. But why? It’s not for lack of power. In fact, it seems to be the opposite. Their power lulls them into comfort. They become undisciplined. Those who had to earn power are replaced by those who have known nothing else. Who have no comprehension of the need to rise above base desires." - Max Barry, Lexicon

Growing up close to the poverty line, I witnessed this phenomenon a lot. People in the middle class and up sort of wish not to acknowledge the real world and just live in their little bubbles.

Teacher: make sure your powerpoint slides don't have too many words Whatifalthist:

It really sucks living in such hedonistic, nihilistic times.

"If we exclude how morally wrong the factors involved were, the conquistadors really did fuck" is probably one of the funniest historical observations ever made.

"Circassian slave girls" Nice reference to the later Ottoman Sultans when the empire was in steady decline.

We are definitely in the decadent stage right now and I suspect it will get worse before it gets better. Most people in the west nowadays are too focused on doing what feels good that they never stop to try and think about what is good.

I think your observation about pre-1940s, westerners were more interested in foreign cultures is absolutely true. Listening to old radio shows, the programs assume that the average listener knew not-so-basic Geography - the Llhasa pass, straits of Malacca, etc....and exotic locations were clearly attractive to audiences - they could never make such assumptions on modern tv programs...

I was just in LA last week. It's so weird and sad to see high end restaurants and brand boutiques along the beaches of Santa Monica, while laying on the pristine parks just next to them are scores of homeless people and druggies digging for discarded food out of the trash.

In Rome's case the people had no reason to stop the barbarians, because Life in the Empire had gotten so bad

Decadence of society is the equivalent of that one person that lives alone and is a complete mess because no one is there to watch or punish

Here's the short version: success breeds failure, failure breeds success...

Something that I'm noticing is that loyalty is generally dying. The dynamic of relationships is changing. More traditionally, you would be a bit standoffish and suspicious of outsiders, they hadn't proven themselves to be trustworthy or beneficial yet. However, the average person is encouraged to instead be open to all newcomers, perhaps even exclusively so. Whereas previously a person who had proven themselves to be loyal would have also proven themselves to be worthy of your defense and support, now the paradigm is flipped to where every newcomer, every stranger, is deserved utmost respect and deference up until the point that they say or do anything that is contrary to your sensibilities. Instead of being cautious about who you let into your life and then going to bat for them once they have proven that they are worth it, even if they mess up, we are encouraged to accept every single person in the world so long as they don't mess up.

Are you even a whatifalthist viewer if you don't know that while Europe's share of the world economy has declined, the US has remained a stable quarter?

"You don't need a reason to be good. You don't need a reason to be alive. You don't need a reason to try to advance the human race, reach the stars, expand your nation. Life pushes on with its own logic." This was actually very insightful and I feel like not enough people realize what you said. Or they do, but take it the wrong way.

My problem with this is that frankly it feels like it's trying to create a narrative rather than necessarily seeing a historical pattern. Rome survived for centuries and even reached its greatest height *after* Nero and Caligula, and it wasn't the decadence of the ruling class that brought it down when it did fall; people forget just how ideologically extreme the French Revolution was (they even tried to do things like decimalise time), and the Republic never truly fell; in terms of putting "socially-constructed reality above actual reality" I point you to the centuries of religious chaos in Europe where countless thousands died and entire power blocs formed and wars were fought over absurd, meaningless doctrinal differences, during which European global power only increased. And during this time there plenty of ridiculous fashions and fads analogous to NFTs.

I think a good way to sum up this video is as society becomes overly comfortable people more or less become lazy on everything and society inevitably collapses

It is an intriguing thought that decadence can be reversed, or at least delayed. Europe in the 1500’s was the example in the video, and it also offers space expansion as a possible fix. How closely linked to that delay was the discovery of a new frontier in the 1500’s? I can see the same pattern occur again in the initial settling of the 13 colonies, which attracted a more barbarous type from a Europe showing early signs of decadence in the late 1600’s early 1700’s, proceeding rapidly to the civilizing movement around the American founding. Then again in the Westward Expansion, which attracted again a much rougher people followed by a culture of civilization from the 1880’s up through WWII. And now space appears like it could provide another frontier to delay decadence. Is it possible that decadence is caused simply by a society losing its expansion momentum? The values then shifting from honesty and problem solving on a dangerous frontier to manipulation and status seeking in a sheltered environment?

I always preferred Voltaire’s quote: “History is filled with the sound of silken slippers going downstairs, wooden shoes coming up.” Silken slippers represent the decadence of the civilization. They make us soft, weak, and comfortable. The men wearing the wooden shoes are uncomfortable, they are blistered, calloused, cut up, hard men. They know pain and loss well, and death is so familiar it is not feared. Do you know why our civilization worships youth? Why it hates aging? Because aging is the only way death comes to them. And they have no familiarity with death, so they fear it. They would rather pretend to be young to forget that death comes for us all.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1730">28:50</a> "always know that the world's a complicated place and try to view the world through the eyes of a foreigner or an 11 year old." that really resonated and seems like good practical advice

Decadence is not exclusively about urban societies. I've read that the romans wrote that selling wine was the easiest way to passify the german frontier, and some powerful tribes supposedly even banned import of alcohol

"Unless its a place like Brazil" I love how our country exists to troll him

“Decadence comes from when man turn away from the stars instead drowns himself in wine” off the top glad to be alive to hear this, it just clicks 💡💡

Decadence is when you seek self pleasure above production at the expense of society.

When every kid wants to grow up to be an ‘influencer’ and not president or an astronaut then we are kinda screwed

It's important to note that urban elites aren't in their cities the way most commoners are. I'm from Southern Brooklyn, and it's a lot different from the bubbles the elite live in. The elite are relegated to three neighborhoods for the most part, with the rest of the city being as different, from those bubbles as any other area of the country. There also have been wars one by urban societies against rural ones (look at every barbarian invasion that failed). It's about the isolation of the elite more then it is urbanization.

I'm seeing a couple of cases where there's a selection bias in the data set. For example, any look at the contemporary celebrities in a society at a present moment an apples to oranges comparison with the celebrities of the past who are known today, because the historical celebrities have been filtered by time and social memory. Shakespeare had numerous contemporaries that barely anyone other than a scholar of the time would be able to name. Those with impactful legacies are remembered while those who were popular but frivolous are forgotten.

One of the most interesting things to me is how humans are always throughout history deeply “religious” about something. Traditionally in the West it’s been Christianity, but these days there’s a religious fervor for secularism, liberalism, social justice, personal political leanings. Many worship at the altar of the state or worship celebrities as idols. The “Cult of Ariana Grande,” the “Cult of Taylor Swift”, the “Cult of Elon Musk.” Celebrity worship has turned into a weird neo-pagan religion where many choose a patron deified human to worship. There’s also the rise of astrology, tarot, crystals, and many New Age beliefs. In short, humans will always show a religious devotion to something. And I find that fascinating. The problem comes when the religious devotion is to something that is self-sabotaging. Worshipping Ariana Grande is a waste of time and energy and erodes self-esteem. There’s no use in many modern forms of religious devotion. There’s no truth to be extracted. And that’s part of why we’ve run into decadence.

Rome's fall was pretty much inevitable once the Romans started relying more and more on German mercenaries rather than their own people to defend its borders. This pattern was later repeated with the Byzantines. The abandonment of the Theme system and the preference of foreign mercenaries (compounded by civil wars and political turmoil) led to its eventual decline and gradual fall as well.

This reminds me of somthing, for absolutely no reason at all, my mind seems to remember a certain line of dialogue from Batman Dark Nigth Rises, when Batman and Bane figth for the first time in the sewers and Bane says: "Peace has cost you your strength, victory has defeated you" Despite not waching the movie in months, I cant get the quote out of my head

I watched the movie "The Bird Box" recently for the first time, and while it was OK as entertainment, I realize that the main perturbing element - strange visions that encourage humans to look at them and which then cause the looker to commit suicide - is similar in a lot of ways to how you said decadence eventually forces people to "see" it and take part in this self-defeating behavior. Also, interestingly, in this apocalyptic tale with undeniable divine underpinnings, there are certain humans who see the visions and do NOT go mad because they were already crazy to begin with and they WANT to see these evil visions. Those crazy people are moved to make the rest of the world LOOK at the visions, forcefully "converting" those who try to avoid seeing it. Modern society is full of people like this who actively and willfully recruit others to the cause of decadence.

As a descendant of Scottish nobility, maybe I should get a title. On the other hand, I'm an American and thus against the concept of nobility. Then again, I do love trees.

“The chattering class is people who read the New York Times, watch Saturday Night Live”, and drink kombucha.” 🤣🤣🤣

This video is Gold, pure gold. Love the level of analysis and incite it gives :)

The number of people interested in what you have to say gives me hope for the the future of the world and the human race. Great job. You are an asset to us all.

as a westerner i would say decadence is the very word that describes the wests down fall its everywhere from our day to day lives of social disconnect and none stop consumerism to our political elite who idle on issues that threaten to ruin our world like global warming or the new rise of autocratic regimes to be quite frank its sad we have fallen this far but hopefully we can pull ourselves out of the mud and dust our selves of i chose to be optimistic for the future how ever hard it may be

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="377">6:17</a> Don't forget that post-Communist societies tend to follow a trend of depression and hopelessness for the future. It's not only an ineffective method of governance; it's also a murderer of the soul and spirit of the people.

I often pause your videos because the maps you show are SO interesting I LOVE maps!!

Thank you Rudyard, this has helped me clarify my own thoughts regarding these matters. I've been intrigued by the cycle of hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create soft men, soft men create hard times and around and around. Very fascinating. Your work and ability to put this content together is quality, thanks again.

As a Brazilian, you aren’t wrong. This is why we will always be the country of the future, and never the country of now

Those India and China examples really made me think of how military service has been treated in Germany.

from time to time i think of a quote from interstellar. in the movie it is said by mccounaghey‘s characters dad and it is said just so subtly that probably most people missed it entirely. in the scene him and his son look up to the sky, talking about humanitys future, when he says: „8 billion people. and each of them wanted to have everything.“ greed is what will destroy us in the end…

Literally one of the most incoherent videos Ive ever seen

I really feel Decadence is a good way to describe modern American culture. It’s an indulgence culture where instant gratification and shallow pleasure is of greater importance and more promoted than higher learning, moral living and noble ideals. I think we live in something akin to a free love future (in a bad way) and materialism and sexual pleasure is so rampant it’s destroying our young people.

You cant think of a single war won by a more urban country against a rural one? Thats an insane claim for an historian to make mate.

I was going to watch the video but I had a sudden doctors appointment in 20 minutes.

You always have brilliant points. Keep up the great work!

"Our society is sadly not overflowing with debauchery in 1920s style parties." Noted

I'm curently reading about the West's decline, written by a romanian writer who's been living in Paris for some time. There was a conversation in the book about how the West should create a "science" out of decadence and decline, not to prevent it, as it is too late for the West, but to leave some ground rules for the next society to know of what to stay away from. Thought it was interesting Matei Visniec, The last days of the West is the name of the book

this guy talks about history the way jordan peterson talk about men

finally I found someone who speaks EXACTLY my language!(my intelectual map, so to speak)! among the channels especialized in geopolitics and history you are the one closest to my way of how to analyze reality. I am quite older than you, but CONGRATULATIONS. SUBSCRIBED!

Much of what you are explaining in this video is close to the "Anti-Fragile" theory of Nassim Taleb: in essence, too much comfort makes us weak and disconnected from reality and sets us up for failure; while living on the edge forces us to build our skill and preparation, thus improving survival rate.

When Francis Fukuyama wrote the 'End of History' in the 90s you knew the collapse was just around the corner.

My d00d, you are my Kim Peak of history, YOU ROCK! I'm serious. You have a BRILLIANT mind. I'm praying for you to hit a MILLION subs and to NEVER STOP, (till you're old like me. smile.) Loved your work on "understanding mesopotanian civilization" and would LOVE TO SEE your breakdown, (historically) of the book of Genisis & Exodus from the Bible. In any case DON'T EVER STOP! You far outclass today's educational system. So impressed, Honest.

Can't believe this channel fell to the point where you're repeating "great replacement" rhetoric.

So the degeneration of American/western culture has caused the decadence. Your general solution to fix culture was with ‘faith’ and ‘honour’ but these are pretty vague. How exactly do you think we can fix American culture at this point other than politics?

A people that loses their martial spirit is a people ready to be conquered.

I read a sci-fi book about an interstellar spaceship the spaceship got to the planet, some people died, and they gave up hope and returned to Earth. Though a thrilling ride back, the author THEN in the author finger-wagged the final portion of the book said 'See, colonizing the stars was wrong.' After that, I turned from a fan to a competitor and started writing my own sci-fi.

Immensely thankful for this channel for expanding my knowledge

"for intelligent people, seeing their societies fall into decadence is never fun..." *shows a picture of Elon Musk*

"society becomes a giant court where people try to fake agreeability and kindness to gain allies rather than a war band (sp?)people speak and act plainly"

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="330">5:30</a> Your comment on Marxist Historical Materialism is just false, Engels pushes back against this exact claim here: "According to the materialist conception of history, the ultimately determining element in history is the production and reproduction of real life. Other than this neither Marx nor I have ever asserted. Hence if somebody twists this into saying that the economic element is the only determining one, he transforms that proposition into a meaningless, abstract, senseless phrase. The economic situation is the basis, but the various elements of the superstructure - political forms of the class struggle and its results, to wit: constitutions established by the victorious class after a successful battle, etc., juridical forms, and even the reflexes of all these actual struggles in the brains of the participants, political, juristic, philosophical theories, religious views and their further development into systems of dogmas - also exercise their influence upon the course of the historical struggles and in many cases preponderate in determining their form. There is an interaction of all these elements in which, amid all the endless host of accidents (that is, of things and events whose inner interconnection is so remote or so impossible of proof that we can regard it as non-existent, as negligible), the economic movement finally asserts itself as necessary. Otherwise the application of the theory to any period of history would be easier than the solution of a simple equation of the first degree." www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1890/letters/90_09_21.htm

this is one of your best videos yet

Britain vs France isn't rural vs urban, it's parliamentarianism vs absolutism. And even then Napoleon gave the allies a run for their money based on his own form of revolutionary absolutism. Also 'rural' Russia could not have beaten Germany in WW2 without support from the US, and Germany thoughroughly beat 'rural' Russia in WW1 as it devolved into the various Russian revolutions. I think you are over-extending your thesis by only citing examples that support it and not looking for counter-examples. Makes for good KZfaq polemic but not a good argument.

Better slideshow of art history than I actually got in my "college level" art history class. Keep kicking ass!

We easy Sunday morning listening. 'Being good is to do good and is good'

Genius work. Thank you.

Considering what I read about history, I believe that the best way to delay complete decedance is to require would-be politicians to fight for office...in a duel to the death...initiated by a recall vote. This would scare off individuals who value their life over duty for their country and discourage those who are already in power from undermining their own countries

"I can't think of a case where an urban society beat a rural one" what about the one million conquests of various savages at Rome's borders? How do you think urban societies get so rich and big in the first place? e: Oh yeah, ACW too. Also all the European countries conquering the world back in the day.

l’m breathless. Thank you. I will need to watch is several time to get all information.

this is one of your best videos. well done

(Turkey) My family owns 3 houses and 1 shop and we are collecting rent from all of them, but we still can barely afford eating meat regularly and try to not drive car because oil is expensive and we often don't have any money left at the end of the month. Think of the poor of my country. We also host the biggest number of refugees in the world and in some places in Istanbul you have to try your hardest to find someone who speaks Turkish. While all of these are happening, our political elite build giant palaces, mosques or airports that nobody uses to our smallest provinces and eat desserts that are more expensive than my house in a single day. I don't know when our collapse is, but I'm sure it can't be as annoying as the status quo.

I have an odd feeling halfway through the video I’m going to stop hearing decadence as a word but a sound

I have been on a long arduous journey to figure out what is wrong with the world, and how to evangelize that to others. This may be the absolute most perfect video accomplishing both goals. Your work is utterly priceless. Thank you and please never stop what you are doing here. The only force that could stop this temporarily would be the growing censorship campaign going on against truth. I so hope we can overcome some of this prior to that happening.

Great video! I learned a lot from this. Thank you!

Decadence is what pop-historians turn to when they don't want to look at more complicated factors in the decline of nations

Basically, Hard Times create Strong Mens, Strong Mens create Good Times, Good Times create Weak Mens, Weak Mens create Hard Times

this is very well researched, great organization, well written- just very well done, good sir.

Well researched and presented. Thank you

Those 30 mins felt like 3. Great video!

As Always, an over simplistic view about India, True that Indian rulers did not reform their armies, did not have outposts but the reality of the situation is they couldn't because they were more like lords, they did not have resources, they had to call upon other feudal lords to raise a not so professional army, and there is no evidence that they built temples to appease gods to save them from invaders, they restored temples that were destroyed during invasions, don't know why you make this up.

I reckon people learn more from these well-presented and entertaining videos than they do in a degree of sociology 🤣🤣

A detachment from reality where the focus has shifted to things that dont matter. From starving to which caviar is best.

How you described India at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1200">20:00</a> seems very similar to modern China. They're even starting to ban overseas travel!

Ah, just the video I needed. I am saddened by the realization that we have been decadent since the boomer generation, if not all time after world war two.

Decadence: "Buying a fake title (it's just a name change to Mr. Lord John Smith) with money you could use for real stuff. Like coke and hookers.

Well this was excellent and I am glad I found it by accident. Good presentation

Before considering ways to oppose decadence and decline I think you need to establish that permanent civilisations are superior than cyclic ones. It is quite possible grand cycles of growth, death and renewal are the optimum model overall.

Little known and rather obscure fact but Song Dynasty China, it was the first country where Restaurants came to exist. Centuries before Restaurants came to exist in France. Hence, If your country has a restaurateur culture...you live in a decadent society.

Bro, you make some of my favorite videos

I loved the Irony of the sponsor for this video.